Open Office

The full version of Microsoft Office 2007 costs around $300, and that's just until the new Microsoft Office hits shelves and the prices soar. When you buy a new computer you often get a Microsoft trial that will expire in a month or two, leaving you without a word program. If you're short on cash, or you haven't liked past Microsoft products and would like to try something new, there is a little-known and little-talked about product called Open Office.

Open Office was originally StarOffice, first offered free in 1998 by its developer, StarDivision [StarOffice, Wikipedia]. StarDivision was later acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999. In 2000 Sun released the code for StarOffice, which allowed the development of the open-source Open Office. [OpenOffice.org, Wikipedia]

Open Office is free to download and free to use, and is compatible with all other major office suites. It is an open-source project. Open-source is a term used for many software products developed specifically for free distribution. Instead of an office suite developed in order to make a profit, Open Office was developed as a competitive alternative to Microsoft Word and other expensive office programs.

Other examples of popular open-source software is the search engine Mozilla Firefox and the GNU/Linux operating system.

Benefits of Open Office:

Open Office is slowly breaking the monopoly held by Microsoft Office. It offers companies and individuals opportunity to save hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars in software costs, by using a program that was developed, not by part-time geeks, but by full-time software professionals who in some cases were paid by their own companies to help develop Open Office. [The Real Benefits of Open Office]

Open Office also provides a basic template for compatible office programs. Anyone anywhere, with the right knowledge, can download Open Office and personalize it to fit a company's needs by changing the code. Open Office is slowly becoming the new standard for office suites, much as HTML has become the standard for web development.

You can download Open Office Drawing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Database, or Text Document. You can choose which program you'd like to add, meaning you can choose just the Text Document, the Text and Drawing, or all five options. If you download just one program you can always come back, anytime, to download the rest Open Office has to offer.

Drawbacks:

As Open Office is modified and upgraded you may find far more bugs than you would in other office program, creating problems requiring troubleshooting. Because Open Office is a free program, and no money is flowing in from consumers, technical support is limited. The best you can expect is what is on the website: a tutorial, frequently asked questions, a community forum, and links to Sun Microsystems and various third-party consultants offering professional help. [Free Alternative to Microsoft Office]

Another drawback is simply that you're not getting as "nice" a product as you would if you bought Microsoft Office or another professional software package. "You get what you pay for" is as true when talking about computer software as it is with anything else in society, and as if to prove this Open Office has few bells and whistles. Open Office is a basic alternative, but like a small Toyota compared to a Mercedes Benz, it will still get you where you need to go.

Dangers:

There are no dangers when downloading Open Office if you download the program from the official Open Office website. Open Office will attach no malware or spyware to your computer when you download it.

If you decide to try Open Office you can test it out as long as you like without deleting or changing Microsoft Office, and if you're dissatisfied with Open Office, you can easily delete it from your computer, leaving no trace of its previous existence.

Sources:
1. StarOffice, Wikipedia
2. OpenOffice.org, Wikipedia
3. Matt Harrison, The Real Benefits of Open Office, Panela
4. Jim Edwards, Free Alternative to Microsoft Office, Practical E-Commerce